Letters

Carolyn Zenk exposed exactly the reason that I joined the village incorporation effort in the first place [“The Knight We Need,” Letters, October 24]. My position, initially, was anti-village, less government. I became a believer after doing research.

I became annoyed by this incestuous game of pay to play and special interest groups. It has become clear that the Group for East End, Pine Barrens and the CACs were all run by the same people — people with access to big money, the press and a very powerful collective voice. These groups are 501-3c, and here they are getting involve with politics — a violation of the IRS code.

That is why the mailers against incorporation sent to the residents of East Quogue were anonymous — direct campaigning is not allowed. The mailer looked and smelled like the Civic Association, but no names. These groups take money from people who own golf courses and are large developers and use it to battle other people who own golf courses and are developers. The Group for the East End holds fundraisers at Golf at the Bridge. The hypocrisy is blinding!

The work they do is very important. We need to be aware of the dangers that developments and golf courses pose. Their work is hard, and I am grateful for it — but they need to stay in their lane! The purpose should be to bring debate and conversation, not to be active part of a smear campaign.

I became involved with the East Quogue Village Exploratory Committee not because I want a golf course, or because I don’t want a golf course, or because I believe the aforementioned groups have lost some of their guiding principles and purpose. I joined the EQVEC because I see the power and the money on both sides of the argument taking hold of the East End and, ultimately, East Quogue. I fear that we, the people of East Quogue, just don’t have the wherewithal to survive it. We don’t have any power and certainly lack the funding to fight these fights, especially when the local Civics is so hopelessly politically aligned.

It’s clearly evident that as a group of 15 fearless and dedicated people, the EQVEC didn’t have the power or the money. At the end of the day, we couldn’t afford to combat the mailers with one of our own and lost.

Whether people believed it or not, the village would have been the protection we needed. It would have allowed us to make rational, common-sense decisions, to take advice and guidance from environmentalist groups at the same time as having the ability to make decisions that benefited and protected East Quogue into the future.

Thank you to all who supported and believed in us.

David Celi

Hampton Bays